Vijay shines on Day 1

The par-three second saw the 2002 Indian Open champion sink a huge 25-foot putt for yet another birdie. He followed that up with another birdie on the very next hole where he came up with a great chip that stopped a few inches from the hole.

The second shot on the seventh was the icing on the cake for Vijay since it left him with a two and a half feet putt for his last birdie of the day.

Vijay said after the day’s play: “I hit it close on most of the holes today and therefore earned as many as five birdies. I have been working on my hitting and my swing alignment of late and that seems to have paid off today.

“My body was getting a little stiff while hitting during recent events. But I managed to eliminate that problem today.”

Chowrasia’s round had three birdies,while Rafick made five birdies against two bogeys.

Sujjan Singh,the winner in Panchkula last week,Arshpreet Thind from the Classic Golf Resort,Mohd Siddikur Rahman,Sanjay Kumar,Vivek Bhandari,R Srinivas,Raj Randhawa and Rudresh Sharma are all in tied fourth place at two-under 70.

Leaderboard

1. Vijay Kumar 5-under 67

2. SSP Chowrasia,Rafick Ali Mollah 3-under 69

4. Arshpreet Thind,R Srinivas,Rudresh Sharma,Vivek Bhandari,Sanjay Kumar,Raj Randhawa,Md Siddikur Rahman,Sujjan Singh 2-under 70

12. Rahul Sikund,R Murthy,Harendra P Gupta,Ali Sher,Kunal Bhasin,Vinod Kumar,Anirudh Goyal,Ranjit Singh,Ranjit Singh (Rathore),Aditya Singh Chauhan,Gaurav Pratap Singh,K Prabagaran,Gurki Shergill,Kuldeep Singh 1-under 71